US Representative for Florida's 23rd then 20th districts, Congressman Alcee Hastings, whose life was marked by perseverance, calamity and a comeback, has died. He was 84. He died Tuesday morning April 6 2021.
Hastings was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in late 2018.
In 1977, then-Gov. Reubin Askew appointed Hastings as a Broward Circuit Court judge. In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter nominated Hastings to the U.S. District Court, making him Florida’s first Black federal judge.
In 1981, Hastings was indicted on charges of conspiring to solicit a $150,000 bribe from an FBI agent posing as a racketeer trying to buy his way out of a prison sentence. In 1983, Hastings’ criminal trial ended when the jury found him not guilty.
Alcee Hasting was an attorney, judge and despite several failed attempts for local political offices in Florida, he was elected to the US Congress in 1992.
Earlier:
Born in Altamonte Springs, FL., September 5, 1936;B.A., Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., 1958; attended, Howard University School of Law, Washington, D.C., 1958-1960; J.D., Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, 1963; lawyer, private practice; judge of the circuit court of Broward County, Fla., 1977-1979; appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida,
He is survived by his wife, Patricia Williams, with whom he lived west of Boynton Beach; three adult children from previous marriages, Alcee “Jody” Hastings II, Chelsea Hastings and Leigh Hastings, and a stepdaughter, Maisha.